Airmax and I would like to announce a restructuring of the tournament system on DDO. This one was one my initial campaign promises and it was something I had mentioned in my most recent Presidential Update [http://www.debate.org...]. This change was the result of a lot of member feedback, and many discussions between Airmax and myself in the hopes of creating more effective, prominent, and high-quality tournaments on DDO.

Regular Tournaments will no longer be held monthly. Instead, they will be held every 3 months. Airmax and I believe that by hosting tournaments on a trimonthly basis, tournaments will receive greater attention, be better attended, and be higher-quality. This change will prevent the so-called "tournament fatigue" issue, whereby people overextend themselves participating in tournaments or whereby people become tired of signing up for tournaments, and thus either cannot give any tournament their best effort or do not bother to sign up for tournaments at all.

Additionally, those who wish to moderate these tournaments must contact myself or Airmax to apply; not all applicants are assured acceptance. The reason that moderators must apply to host revolves around the fact that standards of moderating these official tournaments will naturally be more stringent because the tournaments are less frequent. If fewer tournaments are being held, it is important to make sure that each tournament has the best chance of success, with good moderators and set-ups. I will moderate the first tournament and post sign-ups for it in the near future. We hope to have as many participants as possible and make each of these new tournaments as enjoyable, smoothly-run, and high-quality as possible.

This update to the system will not impact the Beginners' Tournaments to the same degree as the Regular Tournaments. These will continue to run on a monthly basis, as it is important to give noobs the most exposure to and opportunity for debate. Moderators for these tournaments should apply to run them by contacting either myself or Airmax. Furthermore, while the definition of a noob is up to the discretion of the moderator of each tournament, the following may prove to be a useful sample/suggested definition: "A 'beginner' is any user who meets at least two of the following: (a) has been on the site 4 months or less, (b) has completed 40 or fewer debates, (c) has an ELO of 2,500 or less." Moderators are free to use this definition, or some other reasonable parameter(s) of their own design.

Finally, I would Congratulate all those winners of the Regular and Beginners' Tournaments. Airmax and I have compiled and update the list, which can be found here [http://www.debate.org...]. Just to give shout-outs to the winners by name, they are: Ron-Paul (Subutai), Thett3, TUF, Abunai, Oromagi, myself, Phantom, Whiteflame, and Skepticalone. They all deserve congratulations and plaudits for their achievements on the site!

Please feel free to ask any questions about the new policy. It's going to be put into effect right away, though it will not effect existing tournaments.

Thank you!

Live Long and Prosper

I'm a Bish.

"Twilight isn't just about obtuse metaphors between cannibalism and premarital sex, it also teaches us the futility of hope." - Raisor